FRAUD TRIAL: ‘We came out of it, beaten and bruised’

James Benjamin Duncan, right, talks with deputy public defender Nithin B. Reddy in Riverside Superior Court in November 2009 during initial court hearings on felony charges of bilking investors out of millions of dollars. (David Bauman/The Press-Enterprsie)

Six years ago, Anna Richter stood shoulder-to-shoulder with 40 people at a busy Temecula intersection to chide law enforcement and call attention to a Ponzi scheme that had shattered their lives.

Homes had been lost. Savings depleted. Reputations ruined.

A civil racketeering case was brewing against the culprits of a real estate and currency exchange scheme that was taking place in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Oregon, Arkansas and on federal military lands.

The FBI, Securities and Exchange Commission, Riverside County investigators and prosecutors in several states were probing the alleged pyramid-styled investment scam.

But the protesters were getting anxious. They said evidence was being destroyed.

Standing outside The Promenade mall clad in orange T-shirts in May 2007, the families revealed the profit-making scheme and labyrinth of shell companies that James Benjamin Duncan, Hendrix Montecastro, Christopher Oetting and Maurice McLeod ran with other co-conspirators to entice hundreds of âcore clientsâ to refinance their homes, draw down retirement and other savings and max out credit cards for fraudulent investments on houses, hospitals, diamonds and dinar, the Iraqi currency.

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By the time the dust settled on the $142 million real estate and securities fraud case, investigators said 201 homes in Riverside County were pushed into foreclosure.

Duped investors across the West were sent into financial ruin.

âIt seems like an old, bad nightmare,ââ Richter said. âWe came out of it beaten and bruised.â

Montecastro and his mother, Helen Pedrino, were found guilty March 25 of hundreds of felony crimes for their role in the mortgage and securities investment scam.

Richter said she will not feel total vindication until she sees the last two of seven convicted co-conspirators behind bars for a long, long time.

Together, prison sentences for the son and his mother could exceed 130 years.

UNRAVELING

Montecastro, 40, of Maryland, was convicted of 304 counts that included grand theft, destruction of evidence and felony fraud against 26 of 27 named victims â" with asset losses totaling $3.6 million, Riverside County Chief Deputy District Attorney Vicki Hightower said.

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